2019 Chevrolet Camaro With Seven-Speed Manual? Not This Year

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General Motors has revised its CARB certificate to remove mention of a seven-speed manual.

Last month, the internet was aflutter with the possibility of a 6.2-liter 2019 Chevrolet Camaro arriving with the same seven-speed manual offered in the bigger brother Corvette. The source of the speculation was a California Air Resource Board executive order that certified a 2019 Chevrolet Camaro SS for sale in the state with six- and seven-speed manual transmissions and an eight-speed automatic. If you were really hoping for that seven-speed cog swapper in your future 2019 Camaro, we're sorry, but consider your bubble popped.

CARB recently canceled the executive order after General Motors provided an updated certification. The newly published, replacement executive order, posted to the CARB website on February 14th, is the same as the first one except for one crucial change: the seven-speed manual transmission is no longer listed. If you aren’t familiar with CARB executive orders, you aren’t alone. To sell vehicles in California, automakers must test and certify that each model, engine, transmission, and exhaust/evaporative system combination follows the state’s stringent pollution laws. Automakers typically apply for this certification months in advance of a particular model arriving on dealer lots.

With the transmission's removal from the executive order, Chevrolet can't sell a seven-speed manual in the state. That said, the Camaro may still get a seven-speed manual at a later date. And, if anything, the gearbox’s addition to the previous CARB executive order hints that at least one person at General Motors believed the gearbox was supposed to be equipped on the 2019 Camaro. Our guess is it will either arrive toward the end of the 2019 model year or, more likely, be included in 2020—if at all. For now, six forward gears will have to do. Sorry, folks.